In the commercial aircraft industry, a need has developed for the capability of transporting jet aircraft engine components in order that these components may be repaired or retrofitted. Jet aircraft engines are perhaps the most critical assembly of an aircraft wherein the engines must be inspected and maintained to the highest level of repair. Periodically, it is necessary to remove the engine from the wing or fuselage of an aircraft so that the jet aircraft engine and its components can undergo the necessary inspection and repairs. There are three major component sections of the jet aircraft engine; namely, the inlet cowl, the fan section, sometimes known as the fan case, and the core section. When the fan section is removed from the core section, this is known in the art as "engine splitting." The fan section may be removed from the core section either when the entire jet aircraft engine has been removed from the aircraft, or some circumstances dictate that only the fan section be removed while the core section remains attached to the aircraft.
Some prior art devices exist for securing and transporting jet aircraft engine components that have been removed from an aircraft. Typically, these prior art devices include a number of differing configurations which releasably secure the components and provide a means for moving the components so that it may be transported to the desired location for the needed inspection or repairs.
While the prior art devices may be adequate for their intended purposes; one significant shortfall, particularly for the transport of fan sections of a jet aircraft engine, is that the prior art does not provide a shipping frame which enables the fan section to be easily converted for transport in either a vertical or horizontal position. Furthermore, the prior art does not provide for a reliable means of transport for the fan section that may be directly coupled to an intermediate transport apparatus known as a fan dolly which transfers the fan section onto the shipping frame.